Chapter 20: Kobold's evolution

Deryn rushed back into the training room in record time. Widening his eyes he saw what looked to be a beefier version of Kev and a taller more mysterious version of Mummy.

Deryn slowed his approach. He summoned his spear out of his inventory with a fireball cast in the other hand in preparation for the worst.

"Kev...Mummy" Deryn called tentatively.

*Growl*

*Whine*

Kev rushed over to Deryn with a growl and tongue sticking out of its mouth, whilst mummy followed shortly after, silent but tail wagging a mile a minute.

Sighing in relief Deryn reached out and patted Kev on the head. He had to stretch do so as Kev now stood well over Deryns 6ft height. Kev was an entire head taller than him now, a stark change an hour ago where the kobold only came up to his chest.

Kev was packed with muscles, not overly so, just enough to notice a powerful body underneath all his fur. Speaking of, Deryn noticed the fur was a lot more glossy and a darker shade of reddish-brown than it was before.

Mummy on the other hand was around the same height as Deryn if not a few centimetres shorter. Its fur had changed colour completely to white, making it look like the equivalent of an albino Kobold.

It had a more solemn air surrounding it than Kev did. Deryn was astounded at the changes the two had gone through in an hour.

Deryn reached into his inventory and took out some raw meat for the duo. Kev instantly jumped on the pieces gobbling them up at a rapid pace. Mummy on the other hand merely looked at the pieces before shaking its head.

Slightly confused Deryn asked Mummy if it was hungry to which it noded. A light seemed to go if in Deryns mind as he took the cooked kobold meat out of his inventory passing it to Mummy.

It nodded at him graciously before wolfing down the meat like Kev, yet with a decorum that Kev definitely didn't have.

Mummy was finishing its third portion whilst Kev was on its fifth when the voice of the system rang through his mind.

< SYSTEM SUGGESTS THE HOST USES INSPECT ON THEM >

Deryn facepalmed at his foolishness before using inspect on them both.

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< KOBOLD ELITE WARRIOR: KEV >

INSPECT: A stage two kobold warrior. The elite variant has five times the stats as its predecessor form, other than intelligence which is doubled. Due to the method of evolution, it has evolved perfectly with no defects.

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< KOBOLD ELITE MAGE: MUMMY >

INSPECT: A stage two kobold mage. The elite variant has five times the intelligence and double strength, agility and Vitality of its predecessor form. Due to the method of evolution, it has evolved perfectly with no defects. As the beast's intelligence has evolved past 5 points it will learn how to speak the master's language.

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Deryn was covered in a cold sweat. He didn't realise the evolution of the kobolds could have gone awry. Thankfully the potion allowed a perfect evolution from stage one to stage two.

A warrior kobolds (Deryn previously called it a melee kobold) base stats were on average 0.8 with intelligence lagging behind, whilst humans were 1 on average.

As Deryn couldn't see Kev's stats he could only estimate that Kev now had around 4 stats in agility, strength and vitality, whilst his intelligence should be around 1-1.4 points. It was huge growth and Kev had now surpassed Deryn in both strength and vitality.

Mummy on the other hand was intelligence focused. According to the system, its tier 1 body stats would be around 0.6 whilst its intelligence would be between 1.2 and 1.4. This meant even if Mummy had the lowest based average intelligence of 1.2; after it evolved it now reached a minimum of 6 whilst its other stats were around the 1.2 mark.

Deryn was also pleasantly surprised to see Mummy would be able to start learning English. This meant Deryn could relay orders in English to mummy who would then communicate it to the other kobolds under Deryns rule.

"Grow.. gro... gr... th... than... thankyou".

Deryn spun around in total shock. He hadn't heard another voice besides the world and his system since being teleported to this world.

Heart beating he looked around before his eyes found Mummy. The creature looked extremely pleased with itself.

"Did you just talk to me?" Deryn asked slowly pointing to himself.

"Grr.. yesh" Mummy replied with a slight lisp and a growling undertone.

Deryn walked towards Mummy before patting it on the shoulder, too excited to speak.

A few minutes later and Deryn finished up the broken conversation it had with Mummy... no it now wanted to be called Maggy.

Apparently, it was a female Kobold and didn't like the name Mummy due to the bad memories it had with Deryn tying it up.

He had only managed to get that out of Maggy or Mags for short, after ordering her to tell him the truth as she didn't want to upset Deryn and make him lash out.

"You don't have to worry Mags, as long as you contribute and listen you won't ever get punished and even with punishment unless you harm me in any way it won't be that severe, just enough for you to learn your lesson" Deryn both told and warned the Kobold who nodded at him.

It was time to use some more rewards he got from today. Deryn got the two kobolds to follow him as he walked outside, planning to use the kobold encampment cube.

A few minutes later and 6 tents were set up, four of which were the same size as the elite kobolds tent in the encampment he dismantled a few hours earlier. Whilst the last two tents were against the wall of the valley joined together where Kev and Mags would live as they would rule the encampment together.

Kev would be the tribe leader whilst Mags would be the tribe's mage. This was apparently the way kobold tribes were set up according to Mags. Where a warrior or archer kobold would lead the tribe whilst the mage would be more of an advisor/trump card.

Not one to go against simple reasoning as this, Deryn created the encampment surrounding a massive bonfire in the left part of his valley next to the valley wall.

The tents seemed brand new without any rips in them whilst filled with an assortment of furs that the kobolds would sleep on.

The only things which were different from a regular encampment were stumps of wood surrounding the bonfire as seating and the kobold totem placed next to the main entrance of the tribe leader tent.

At this point all the kobolds had recognised Kev as the tribe leader, this didn't change Deryn's authority only creating some between the kobolds under his rule.

The effects of the totem were also now visible to Deryn as he placed it.

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BLOODLINE: Kobolds who live within the encampment this totem is placed have a small chance to evolve after a battle should they win.

UNITY: Once a kobold joins the tribe they will never betray it. They would rather die than commit such a dishonour to the pack.

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These effects were quite special. The first one would mean natural evolution chances whilst the second meant loyalty. This meant that because Deryn had ownership of Kev due to the slave contract, kobolds who joined the tribe would also be forever loyal to him.

With that out of the way, Deryn told the kobolds to keep watch on the wall in shifts whilst he was going to train.

Now that he had a free couple of hours he wanted to make the most of it. He could gain an increase of 0.1 strength for using the uncommon training weights for an hour and 2 mana for meditating for an hour.

2 hours later Deryn got opened his eyes from his meditation. His strength had increased by 0.1 whilst his mana had increased by 2. This brought his strength to 2.9 and his mana to 107. Whilst he had 132 mana total, 25 of that came from the ring of 4 elements so wasn't included in the mana needed to form a mana core.

For that, he would need an extra 43 mana, which would take 22 days of meditation.

"It's pretty slow" Deryn muttered aloud.

< SYSTEM WANTS TO POINT OUT TO THE HOST THAT THIS IS JUST A SINGLE WAY FOR YOU TO INCREASE STATS. LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLES ARE STILL THE BEST WAY FOR ONE TO OVERCOME LIMITS AND GROW >

Deryn had quite honestly forgotten about that. He had increased his base stats before using that method, but he quickly forgot about it due to the battles he recently went through not pushing him to the brink of death like before.

The battles were still hard-won, however, due to his skills, equipment and tactic, he wasn't close to death and therefore hadn't grown much from the battle, besides his battle sense increasing.

"I will keep that in mind system, what time is it?" Deryn asked.

< 3:04 PM >

The first test had started just over 5 hours ago and Deryn was curious at how the rest of the population were holding up.

Opening up the world chat Deryn couldn't believe his eyes. There was now a figure at the top of the screen which showed the entire human population left in the tutorial world.

< 5.6 Billion >

Whilst this may have seemed like a vast number, one couldn't forget that around 7.6 billion humans were transported to the tutorial world.

A realisation hit Deryn in the face like a slap. The ones to die first were most likely the extremely elderly or extremely young children. Horror spread across his face.

Although he wasn't a people person and rarely interacted with another human outside of a superficial interaction, he was still a human. The fact that around 2 billion had died in four days made his entire soul feel distressed.

< HOST. EXTREMELY YOUNG OR OLD HUMANS HAVE TELEPORTED EITHER NEXT TO OR NEARBY INDIVIDUALS DEEMED BY THE WORLD AS CAPABLE. ALTHOUGH WHETHER THEY WERE HELPED BY SAID INDIVIDUALS REMAINS TO BE SEEN >

Another slightly human response by the system which Deryn missed. This information didn't make him feel much better. Although children and the elderly had a chance to be helped who could say others would help them.

Deryn couldn't blame anyone for potentially not helping them though. He wasn't sure what he would do if he had the opportunity to help children or the elderly.

At the end of the day, he too was striving to survive and looking after others would be a potential burden he didn't want to have. At least not currently whilst, maybe he would protect others when his strength increased but he had no desire to do it now.

With that realisation, the pain he felt when looking at the figure didn't overpower him anymore. Whilst it still made him sad, it wasn't as overbearing as it was when he first looked at it.

"There's no point being sad. I will just have to do what I can without endangering myself" Deryn clenched his fists as he said this.

He wanted to survive, there were no two ways about that.

Deryn closed his eyes before opening them a few moments later, his eyes slightly sharper than before.

No longer thinking about the gruelling figure, he looked at what people were typing in the world channel.

Slightly surprised he sat there reading for a few minutes. It wasn't as bad as he prior thought. There were messages occasionally asking for assistance but a majority of them were bragging about completing the test and what monsters they had to face.

Deryn didn't realise that the advice he gave the regional channel about grouping up had made its way to the world chat by the members of the regional chat. His advice had caused the vast majority of humans to team up with one another to pass through the first test. This meant he had indirectly saved upwards of millions of lives.

He didn't know this had happened however and instead thought it was just human adaptability.

"It really is true that humans are one of the most adaptive species" he muttered, smiling at the thought.

After reading for a few more minutes Deryn went over the regional chat where he saw a few familiar names typing.

Deryn Adams: Congratulations on surviving guys, how was your defence?

Owlen Davids: So yeah in the end Chris managed to shoot an arrow through the elite goblins eye and we took it down.

Chris Leeds: Hi Deryn! It was tough!

Cerry Allen: Hi Deryn! Tough... good rewards though!

Owlen Davids: Hello Deryn. Our defence went by alright we didn't lose anyone and got decent rewards. How was yours?

Deryn Adams: It was fine, it was relatively simple as I wiped out most of my enemies before the event even started. I only had to deal with 44 stage 1 kobolds and a single-stage 2.

Piper Lee: There's no way...

Chris Leeds: YOU DID WHAT?!

Owlen Davids: What do stages 1 and 2 mean?

Deryn Adams: Yeah, not the easiest but wasn't hard by any means. Stage 1 are creatures like a kobold warrior and stage 2 are like a kobold elite warrior.

Owlen Davids: Oh right. We didn't know they had classifications. How do you know?

Chris Leeds: We have 11 people in our group and we only had to deal with 30 enemies. You are a single person and dealt with 45...

Piper Lee: I have 7 people with me and we dealt with 24...

Deryn Adams: You have to take advantage of your system guys. Think of it as a tool. How effective the tool is, is based upon how you use it. I also don't know how the test works and calculates the number of enemies.

Deryn Adams: I'm glad you guys are alright but I have stuff to do so I need to go. Stay safe.

On that note, Deryn left the chat. He was surprised that they had to go through fewer enemies than him, especially being in bigger groups, considering it was meant to be the other way round.

Yet he saw in the world chat that someone who beat the test solo only had to fight 8 enemies and there were no stage 2 enemies among them.

"System, what is the difficulty of the test based on?" Deryn asked, not holding his breath for an answer.

< THE TESTS TAKE ALL THINGS ABOUT THE SURVIVOR(S) INTO CONSIDERATION. THIS CAN BE SHELTER LEVEL OR OWN STRENGTH AMONG OTHERS. THE SYSTEM IS NOT PRIVY TO ANYMORE INFORMATION THAN THIS >

Deryn doubted the last part of the system's reply but didn't dwell on it. Rather he came to a slight realisation that the better his strength and shelter level was the more difficulty he would face in the tests.

He couldn't just stop growing stronger however or it would lead to his downfall. The only hope he had was to outgrow the tests, although he had only managed that thus far do some key elements of luck he couldn't ignore.

Opening up his inventory he pulled out the new intermediate map. While it was a small waste to use it here as he already knew the surrounding 10x10km it was better to see equally further around his shelter than in just one direction.

Deryn looked at the new map and held the old one to see if there were any differences before a blue window flashed up in his vision.

< DO YOU WISH TO MERGE MAPS: Y/N >